Incorrect login detailsYour account has been bannedYour account is lockedYour account has been deletedYou have reached the limit of authorised attemptsYour account name has been blacklistedThis Ankama account is protected by the Authenticator.1. Open the Authenticator application.2. Select your account.3. Select ''Unlock''.4. You will have 30 seconds to retype your account information.

Azael comes back with a new Letter to the Community. In this issue, he will talk about the November update, as well as the upcoming one in December.Hello there and welcome to our now monthly talk.

As usual, I will talk about the last update and what’s coming in the next one.

Last Update

I think this was a rather positive update, even though it wasn’t perfect.

The new organization of the team that was implemented for the last update did bring results, and I want to thank all of you for your support, as well as the team for all the efforts provided to make it work and bring results so quickly.

Wild Estate

I’m particularly happy with the quality of the Wild Estate, and I believe we found similar feedback in your comments: thank you all for sharing your thoughts!

This will motivate us to do even more and keep improving the “structure” of our narrative content for the next islands while staying focused on little details that could be problematic.

Beta server

The Beta server is also a success: many of you joined us for testing and sent us much valuable feedback that was used to improve content for the last update. Once again: thank you all!

Another example of its usefulness: Last week it allowed us to identify an issue with the conversion of experience following the revamp of the experience curve. Had we not tested this change on Beta, we wouldn’t have noticed it for the Update!

Players/Developers communication

This is an ongoing process that began with our CMs, and I think we can say that the results are quite positive so far with the addition of early changelogs and devblogs being published much earlier to receive your feedback.

Bugs

Once again, this is a huge downside of the update. But I want to talk about it as I believe that regarding content addition, our new methods have proven efficient.

However, there are two points that couldn’t go unnoticed:

Al Howin

Updater

Al Howin… Too many issues with this one. We’re already taking steps to make sure that this doesn’t happen again. In the name of the team I sincerely apologize and a compensation has already been sent to all those that connected during the event.

The issues encountered can be explained by the fact that we had to completely relocate the event in the new Astrub, without modifying it too much. We also don’t have any automatic event system, which generated issues with the quests that couldn’t be repeated after a year.

The next two events, Kwismas and the Spring festival will be a real test for us.

The production time needed for an event is high. This wouldn’t be too much of an issue if the event could be repeated every year automatically. However, if the team has to work on it every year, and spend as much time as the first year, I’d rather ask them to focus on other content.

This is a decision I will make based on the success of the next two events in 2013 and beginning of 2014.

About issues with the updater since the update to Java 6, these are unfortunately outside of the control of the Production team. Be sure that we are doing everything that is possible on our side to make sure that the next update will be deployed and patched more smoothly.

These points really darkened the global impression of the update, and changed something positive into a more reserved feedback.

But when I look at the new organization, and what it accomplished in a month and a half, I stay confidant about the quality of our next updates, although the next one will be a real challenge!

December Update

While the last update was focused on content addition, the next one will not only include a new feature (Sidekicks), but also a couple revamps: Smithmagic and the experience gain in-game.

This is quite an ambitious program that I hope will be a success in terms of new content and the overall quality of the update.

Smithmagic and experience curve

We said we would revamp them for the end of the year, and it shall be done!

You can already find a Devblog about Smithmagic here.

Let us know what you think!

A Devblog about the experience curve is being written as we speak, and will explain the many adjustments that had to be done on the curve itself, and the experience gains.

No mobile arenas

Nope, we haven’t forgotten about it, I did look into it to see if we could reopen them in their current state.

Unfortunately, this will not be possible and would require a complete revamp of the rewards and heavy testing. As you know, the last update of this year will not allow us to spend that amount of time on them.

Challenges in combat

As some of you discovered on Beta, challenges are coming, and they should bring more fun to the game.

We will keep implementing new challenges with new updates, to improve the mechanic and the fun.

We know that the first challenges will not be achievable by all, but this is intended.

This new feature is still new and should evolve with time and your feedback. Don’t hesitate to share it!

Sidekicks

This feature will finally bring a true tactical RPG aspect to WAKFU, by offering players control over a team of up to three characters.

We will soon be publishing a Devblog that should help you understand the real role of each Sidekick, and convince you that they will be more than simple “pets ++”.

Not only will you get to control them, but you will also be able to equip them. Each has a specific build, and you will get them to level up with you. Note also that they won’t be linked to your character, but to the entire account.

The first Sidekicks will be the Multimen, released with the feature itself, but we will add new ones regularly.

Those who follow me for some time should know that I always try to stay honest, so I would like to directly address the question that has been on everyone’s lips: Why selling them?

Allowing players to control multiple characters is directly impacting multi-accounts. Either we face this fact, or we just ignore it and keep going.

We chose the first, but it has a cost…

We did not want to impact the subscriptions or sell a one use only service. We decided to allow players to purchase a Sidekick once for the whole account and all his characters.

This addition is optional, and only needs to be paid once.

We then had to find the perfect balance between making the Sidekicks useful without making them more efficient than another player.

I want to specify however that our subscribers will be able to use a Sidekick “for free” in game, each week, just as in a MOBA. The experience gained on this Sidekick will be saved, and you will be able to level up all your Sidekicks each week without need to buy them… You will only have to wait until your favorite Sidekick becomes available again.

Will there be some for free?

Only one, right upon release: the Knight of Astrub.

He will have less spells than other Sidekicks, but remain just as powerful.

Note however that the next ones will also be sold.

Postponing the Feca

First, let me say this again, classes remain one of our top priorities, with experience, drop and crafting.

Why postponing the Feca? Is it because of the Multiman?

The Sidekick feature was indeed designed by the same team as classes, and required a significant testing time, and same with Smithmagic.

The time left for Feca just seemed too short to offer a complete revamp. As I said, classes remain a priority, which means that I want to be sure to have enough time to guarantee the best quality possible.

I had to make a decision, and one of the things that influenced this decision was that in the first quarter of 2014, we will implement new rules for levels over 100.

We will have to modify all classes to add a real gain after level 100, which should make many of you happy.

I didn’t want to have to modify a class that was already revamped two months earlier.

However we won’t leave you without any information about the Feca since we will be publishing the PDF of its changes on the forums soon, as well as a Devblog about its revamp in December.

Astrub and factions

We still have more content to implement in Astrub, some of it being the factions and a secondary quest rewarding you with a relic.

We will also add a first narrative chapter to the Nations that should allow you to become a guard… I won’t say more now and I’ll let you discover…

December Update
While the last update was focused on content addition, the next one will not only include a new feature (Sidekicks), but also a couple revamps: Smithmagic and the experience gain in-game.This is quite an ambitious program that I hope will be a success in terms of new content and the overall quality of the update.

You dont even mention the PP-Cap which is part of the Dropsystem update you promised us.
You also promised us to "release things when they will be completed entirely, and not half done like you did in the past" in your last letter to the community.
The PP-Cap is seen as completly half done and they wont accept this to get implemented.
They feel like you lie to them!

Quote

Challenges in combat:
"We know that the first challenges will not be achievable by all, but this is intended."

You justify these changes (PP-Cap) with the Combat-Challange-System nobody asked for and as you say not everyone can take part in this (which in my opinion again is completly half done!).

And then the sidekicks?! Nobody asked for them but everyone wants class revamps!

Quote

The Sidekick feature was indeed designed by the same team as classes, and required a significant testing time

Quote

As I said, classes remain a priority, which means that I want to be sure to have enough time to guarantee the best quality possible.

So to sum it up: We feel like we are hearing lies from you and aren´t getting heard from you.

Question: Above it is said that when you buy a sidekick it is linked to the whole account and not just one character. Does this mean that essentially they are not tradable and can only be used by the characters on your own account, or does this mean that the the sidekick can be used by every character so you do not have to buy 1 sidekick per character?

Wow, very happy about being able to save EXP and such across the Sidekicks, as well as them being available across the entire account.

I guess my only real questions are about: What happens if my Skale is lv 128 on my Osa, and equipped in Wabbit gear, and then I want to use it on my Ecaflip, who is only level 90? I'm assuming something gets unequipped and the level drops down, but what and how? I'd imagine the equipment under each character is different, and they probably start at level 1 on each character, and you can just level them up multiple times, up to 5x, one for each character slot. Is this anywhere near correct?

I gotta say the PP cap seems a little half baked to me, particularly if challenges will be as limited as you suggest. I guess the real question is will the sidekicks have PP and will they be able to receive items? If that's the case then you are greatly increasing PP for groups of 1 or 2 players but putting a major handicap on larger groups and there will be less incentive to play with friends because why would I go with 5 people and split the loot when I can go with one friend and 2 sidekicks and get half of it? If sidekicks don't have PP and don't receive items then we are completely dependent on challenges for a chance to get items and we get screwed out of loot 80% of the time. Either way it seems you just took a broken concept and broke it more. Hate to break it to you but band aids won't fix that shattered femur.

Other than that small issue. Everything else looks like its coming together.

What happened to "we will let sadidas control summons next by the of the year" ?

the devs have no time to do things the palyers want (such as revamps and other nice stuff), neneko, because they have to implement and balance stuff players don´t want such as Multiman/sidekicks.
Sad, but true!

I don't know about everyone else, but I'm happy with sidekicks. It helps people who only use one or two accounts keep up with the people who use six+ -- at least somewhat. I'm okay with the Feca revamp being delayed as it will give us hopefully a more quality revamp than we would have otherwise gotten. Especially since Feca is a hard class to change from its current state.

I am most concerned with the issues of capping PP and Wisdom -- I hope the explanation given in the devblog will satisfy my feelings towards the change. I don't want this to be a: "Because PP is easier to get from challenges..." or a "Due to the upcoming change to the drop system in X months..."

What happened to "we will let sadidas control summons next by the of the year" ?

the devs have no time to do things the palyers want (such as revamps and other nice stuff), neneko, because they have to implement and balance stuff players don´t want such as Multiman/sidekicks.
Sad, but true!

This isn't something I came up with?
This is something azael told us last month, it's a quote of what he said

letting us control dolls or summoning dolls with less AP are modificiations. they know that summoning a doll costs too much but never have time to fix this issue. Unless its a class like rogue, enutrof, xelor, or enu which get modified all the time it really doesn't matter.